Published September 1, 2002.
Determined to formulate a really good 90-minute lasagna recipe, we came up with several shortcuts: We made a 12-minute tomato meat sauce by cooking onions, garlic, and meatloaf mixture (ground beef, pork, and veal) and then adding cream and tomatoes. We chose no-boil lasagna noodles for our quick lasagna recipe to eliminate the process of boiling and draining. We created a classic cheese layer quickly with ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, fresh basil, and an egg to help thicken and bind the mixture. Covering the lasagna with foil before baking helped soften the noodles; removing the foil during the last 25 minutes of baking allowed the cheeses to brown properly.
If you can’t find meatloaf mixture for the sauce, or if you choose not to eat veal, substitute 1/2 pound ground beef and 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed, for the meatloaf mixture. The assembled, unbaked lasagna, if wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and then in foil, will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months. To bake, defrost it in the refrigerator for a day or two and bake as directed, extending the baking time by about 5 minutes.
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